The Rocket's Song

[arbre_rieur]

Four pages from ACTION COMICS 5...

Comments

[darkknightjrk]

Gotta love Morrison--he took something that should be old-hat and boring and make it so operatic. :D

I'm also liking what he's doing with Brainiac--he seems to be combining the Kryptonian AI from S:TAS and the Coluan collector stuff with the Collector of Worlds, and I see the two being melded at some point.

[shadowpsykie]

Gotta love Morrison--he took something that should be old-hat and boring and make it so operatic. :D

sometimes his dramatic can pay off

[zapbiffpow]

I haven't read the scans to avoid spoilery, but I must say that cover looks glorious. The wings remind me of that thingamajig in Superman: The Animated Series when Clark found out about his parents.

[nemryn]

That last page is just a little too reminiscent of Starro, imo.

[arilou_skiff]

Gotta love the word "mothermatician"

[kamino_neko]

I...guess...I can...sort of see it...if I squint... But it lacks radial symmetry (having pretty strong bilateral symmetry), has 6 extremities (possibly 8 if the ones on the bottom aren't the same bits) of 4 (5) different designs, is monochrome (and not even in Starro's dominant colour), and spiky all over.

[valtyr]

Really wondering what that means. The -ician suffix means a specialist in or practitioner of, so she's... a professional mother? A supermother?

[runespoor]

I read that as a portmanteau of "mother"+"mathematician".

[valtyr]

As portmanteaus go, it's a bad one, as he removes most of 'mathema', the root.

Also, what exactly is the combination of mathematics and motherhood? Did she... design her son's genetics? (Could be an element of statistical analysis I suppose.) Or does it just mean she's mother and a mathematician? If so, can we assume that Jor-el's lack of portmanteau, his label solely as 'the father' means he was the homemaker and stay-at-home dad of the couple?

[aulayan]

Maybe Im reading too much into it but...

"As the seed of Krypton grew and bloomed. And so began the age of Superhumans."

...It sounds to me as if they want to develop a link between Superman and everyone else. Which. No. Not again.

[werehawk]

Or, if it is so, just like Stracynzski's Supreme Power series.

[shadowpsykie]

i think it's to go along with Jor-el's "The Father, what a mind"

and she and Jor-el both worked on the rocket together. so she probably worked out the mathematics.

i don't know, i liked it as a portmanteu. it flowed with the rest of it....

[shadowpsykie]

well... teh age of superheroes is commonly associated with with the emergance of superman... he was the first "Public Face" of the superheroes. so it makes sense to me.

[valtyr]

Then why not "Jor-el. The Father, what a mind. Lara. The mother, the mathematician." It's or, indeed, Jor-el, the what a mindfather. Why is Lara's identity and profession entirely bound up with her motherhood, whereas Jor-el's 'father' quality is separate from his intelligence?

I mean, heaven forbid we describe a woman in a way that doesn't keep her gendered attributes front and centre at all times, even when they need clumsily forcing together. I suppose 'mathematicianess' just sounded too silly.

Anyway, back to womanwork as a civil servantgirl. Admininstrativeofficerwoman. Drafterchick. DID I MENTION I'M A WOMAN IT'S ALWAYS COMPLETELY RELEVANT AND YOU CAN'T GATHER IT FROM ANY CONTEXTUAL CLUES SO I HAVE TO SHOVE IT INTO UNRELATED WORDS THAT I LADYSPEAK OR DAMETYPE.

[valtyr]

Apologies, I wasn't intending to yell at you - more at the writer, if at anyone.

Whether it sounds poetic or not, there's a long tradition of gendering every damn thing women do, while men are more often just allowed to do things without it being about their gender. I'm sure he didn't mean to be negative, but why not come up with something poetic and elegant for Jor-el which intimately combines his reproductive status with his intellect? Why isn't he a fatheriatrist or a dadographer?

I mean, were it a cultural thing that bound up one's parenthood or lack thereof with one's profession and how one performed, that would be original and potentially interesting. As it is, it comes across as the tired old nonsense that even in superadvanced species across the galaxy, a woman's womanhood is the most important thing about her and must never be overshadowed or go unmentioned for a second.

[fifthie]

Morrison's ideas would be totally far out and crazy and exciting if he'd stop reusing the same ones.

[long_silence]

Seem to fly?

[arbre_rieur]

See, I'd argue that her motherhood is vastly important in this scene and therefore appropriate to mention. That's her and Jor-El's role in the whole mythos, really -- they're the mother and father to the last son of Krypton. And I imagine that's why the AI also explicitly brings up Jor-El's status as the father as well ("Jor-El, the father, such a mind.")

And, as an aside, I also read it, alongside "exquisite calculations," as hints that, as a living AI, the rocket views mathematics as something more than just cold equations the way humans do. Heck, if she programmed "Brainiac" here, than she's his mother, too.

[icon_uk]

Pretty much, bear in mind he DID start out leaping, not flying. It's quite possible Jor-El never expected him to learn to fly, since it's essentially a different power from leaping.

[icon_uk]

I'd have used "Matermatician" myself. :)

[valtyr]

Mention, yes. I don't have a problem with that at all. Conflate with her profession, no, unnecessary. There's not reason she couldn't be mother and mathematician.

Heck, if she programmed "Brainiac" here, than she's his mother, too.

If mothermatician refers specifically to being an expert in the calculations of the equations to produce new life, that's completely acceptable to me. However, I'd need some actual textual evidence for that. *shrug*

[valtyr]

That just sounds like a bad Brooklyn accent. :)

[icon_uk]

That makes it even better, it's an inbuilt Kirby-homage. Morrison would LOVE it!

[darkknightjrk]

I think they were going for the energy crystals thing that we typically associate with Krypton from the Donner flicks.

[darkknightjrk]

I'm not sure what you mean. I looked at it as the rise of superheroes in general--and, if you want to go deeper, there is the idea that Morrison put out in JLA and Final Crisis that Earth becomes the Fifth World and it's inhabitants turn into New Gods.

[jlbarnett]

or it could be looked at as he replaced the "A" with an "O" and added an "R", which I think is what they were going for.

[filthysize]

Really thought I'd be bored by the Superman origin by now, but damn, that whole opening sequence is awe-inspiring. The failed Phantom Zone escape, the explanation of the rocket being a miniature prototype... Everything binds together so damn well.

[arbre_rieur]

There's not reason she couldn't be mother and mathematician.

Whereas I read "mothermatician" as meaning just that (like congresswoman means "member of Congress and a woman"), with a wacky portmanteau thrown in for punny fun and to make it more alien and, er, artificial intelligence-ish.

[arbre_rieur]

The rocket being a miniature prototype isn't new. I believe it was a well-established part of the pre-Crisis origin.

[icon_uk]

Yup, though Jor-El was a little off about that, his FIRST prototype was the one Krypto was sent up in, which was damaged Krypton orbit and went missing.

The second test model was the one Kal was sent up in.

[icon_uk]

Except post Crisis DCU threw that out since there had been costumed heroes for decades before Superman showed up

[shadowpsykie]

yeah, and here that doesn't seem to be the case (except if they are going for Johns' Smallville take where the JSA wasa secret group or a group that fell out of favor with the government, which i don't mind, as i loved that take) so this still kinda works.

[halloweenjack]

With added space anus.

[halloweenjack]

Which plot point was, itself, overly derivative of the Wild Cards books.

[halloweenjack]

Or reusing those of others.

[chocochuy]

Wait, Jor-El used Krypto, his family's dog, as a test pilot?!? For some reason, I always thought that Krypto was with Kal-El on the rocket ship that managed to escape. I might need to re-check me comic books history from now on.

[chocochuy]

Even though Superman's origin has been re-done a zillion of times, I actually loved the way it has been handled by Morrison and Andy Kubert's art is always a delight for the eyes.

I know it wasn't intentional but I can't stop thinking that Lara looks a lot like Ardora Luthor from the Pre-Crisis planet of Lexor. If it was intentional then kudos to Morrison and Kubert for remembering such an obscure character.

[icon_uk]

Krypto's Pre Crisis origin is outlined here

The same origin was used for the Krypto animated series (which also includes one of my all time fabvou

An episode which features one of my all time favourite Superman scenes

[chocochuy]

Thanks for the clarification on Krypto's origin.

Just checked that video and my heart melted with joy seeing Krypto as a puppy. His animated series was pretty cool.

By the way, it seems the third link isn't working, at least on the way it was posted, amigo.

[icon_uk]

Really? Works for me, I added a time tag to the you8tube link so it took you to the relevant scene in the clip.

Oh, and yes Krypto is an under-rated series IMHO. Of course, this episode would have convinced me if the rest of it hadn't.already! :)

[icon_uk]

Oops, my mistake

This is how the third link SHOULD work!

[valtyr]

Yes, but the point is when they do it to the female character and not the male, it ties into a long tradition of insisting a woman's profession cannot be separated from her femininity. Rather than making congresswoman from congressman (a word that already has a gendered component), it makes poetess from poet.

[valtyr]

It still means the root of 'mathematics' isn't present in the word.

[chocochuy]

Ahh, Bat-Hound and Robbie the Robin, such a magnificent way to show the Dynamic Duo on the world of animals. Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Icon_UK, it put a smile on me face.

[icon_uk]

It's what we're here for! :)